Our Expertise

Brucker & Morra, a law firm located in Los Angeles, practices exclusively in ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) and tax law as the affect and impact transactional, compliance and litigation matters relating to employer sponsored ERISA and non-ERISA Employee Benefit Pension and Welfare Plans. On all ERISA matters, we serve businesses, business owners, non-profit organizations, attorneys, accountants, actuaries, pension administrators and consultants, and investment and securities professionals.

While all client communications are held in strict confidence within the firm, all of Brucker & Morra’s attorneys share ideas and strategies in order to provide the best results for our clients. When you retain one attorney at Brucker & Morra, you get the creative resources of the entire firm!

We concentrate our practice on the following pension and employee benefits (ERISA) areas and related cross-over areas:

Brucker & Morra advises businesses and business owners on designing, writing, and implementing 401(k) and profit sharing plans. We also counsel businesses and business owners on the legal aspects and consequences of: 401(k) and profit sharing plan compliance; operations and fiduciary liability, including plan interpretation and amendments; employee notices and claims; plan termination; and benefit distribution.

Brucker & Morra’s plan documents are nationally respected and recognized such that they are licensed to McKay Hochman (DST Systems, Inc.), and used by third-party administration firms across the nation.

The laws surrounding defined benefit pension plans are very complex, and non-compliance can result in significant employer liability. These forms of pension plans are based on and driven by an employer’s contractual promises. Attorneys at Brucker & Morra are experts in the design, operation, implementation, and fiduciary issues related to defined benefit and cash balance pension plans. We take care to inform and educate businesses about the potential liabilities regarding these plans.

Brucker & Morra advises businesses and business owners on designing, writing, and implementing Defined Benefit and Cash Balance Pension Plans. We implement plan features that will reduce plan costs and future liabilities, and comply with ever-changing ERISA legislative and regulatory requirements, including the Pension Protection Act of 2006. We also counsel businesses and business owners on the legal aspects and consequences of pension plan compliance, operations and fiduciary liability, including plan interpretation and amendments, employee notices and claims, plan termination, and benefit distribution.

Corporate mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs can create complex employee benefit issues. Our familiarity with plan provisions and operations gives us command of both the practical and technical issues related to transactions, and to the complications that can arise following the closing of a merger or acquisition.

We have extensive experience performing due diligence for mergers and acquisitions and can provide the following services:

Develop an employee-benefits strategy for an acquisition, merger or spinoff

A significant majority of pension and employee benefit plans have never been reviewed by legal counsel experienced in benefits or ERISA. Brucker & Morra believes that every pension and welfare benefit plan requires a periodic, thorough legal review of its operations and documentation to ensure that the plan meets all IRS and DOL requirements.

Brucker & Morra will perform a full review of an employer-sponsored plan, and present a report of the plan’s document and operational compliance. Such report would be based on a review of:

Plan documents and amendments

Annual valuation reports prepared by third parties

Form 5500 Annual Reports for past 3 years

Certified CPA Audit Reports

Most recent IRS submissions, reports and communications

Most recent Department of Labor investigation report and communications

We counsel clients who have filed for bankruptcy protection or who have creditor protection concerns, providing advice about legal protection under ERISA and California law. Additionally, we provide advice to insure that retirement benefits and plans are protected against creditor attacks.

We counsel bankruptcy trustees and their attorneys on their ERISA fiduciary responsibilities to protect and deliver participant benefits and to maintain the integrity of their plans.

Brucker & Morra excels at repairing administrative, operational and document-related violations pertaining to 401(k) profit sharing and pension plans. The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor offer various compliance correction programs to help plan sponsors avoid significant penalties for non-compliance. Our knowledge and experience in these government programs enable us to fashion and advocate for creative solutions. We are dedicated to preparing correction-program submissions and negotiating reduced penalties and/or correction methodologies. The various IRS and DOL correction programs include:

The Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS): This IRS program allows most retirement plan sponsors to correct certain operational and plan document failures.

The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFC): This DOL program allows a plan fiduciary who has breached his or her fiduciary duty to correct certain breaches and avoid substantial penalties.

The Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (DFVC): This DOL program allows plan sponsors to submit delinquent annual reports on Form 5500 for substantially less than the $15,000-per-delinquent-report penalty.

The Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor EBSA (Employee Benefit Service Administration) and the PGBC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) each have jurisdiction over the operations of pension and retirement plans. Each government agency has its own mission and objective:

The IRS has jurisdiction over retirement plan tax-compliance matters that affect the plan, the sponsoring employer and the participants.

The IRS can disqualify a retirement plan and bring about severe adverse tax consequences to the employer sponsor and/or the plan participants.

The EBSA of the Department of Labor has jurisdiction over the conduct of those persons (fiduciaries) who have the power to act on behalf of the plan and its participants.

The DOL conducts an investigation of the fiduciaries similar to a justice department investigation of unlawful conduct. A fiduciary should be represented by counsel when involved in a DOL investigation.

The PBGC has jurisdiction over defined-benefit pension plans with regard to their termination, and is charged with protecting participant benefits.

Brucker & Morra counsels clients and their family lawyers on employee benefits that may be considered community property in marital separation or divorce cases. We advise on the relationship between community property law and federal employee benefits law, and draft or review provisions of judgments or marital settlement agreements and qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs). We provide expert testimony to bolster our clients’ positions on the division of employee benefits. We also counsel clients and their lawyers regarding property and retirement benefit protection prior to and during marriages. We draft the proper provisions for pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements to protect retirement plan benefits earned prior to and after marriage.

Family lawyers in California are invited to read about current employee benefits news that pertains to domestic relations matters here.

Brucker & Morra provides advice on a full range of executive compensation issues, including non-qualified deferred-compensation arrangements and top-hat plans. We help clients implement and operate deferred compensation plans that are not tax qualified, but which meet the comprehensive requirements imposed upon deferred compensation by Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. These plans generally fall into two categories:

Excess-Benefit Plans provide unfunded retirement benefits for highly compensated employees who are constrained by the maximum dollar contribution limitations that may be imposed under tax-qualified plans.

Selection and monitoring of service providers such as trustees, record keepers, investment consultants and investment managers

Negotiation and preparation of agreements with service providers

Fiduciary due diligence audits

Our objectives are to help our clients fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities, serve their employees, and avoid litigation and other claims. As a law firm focusing exclusively on employee benefits, we bring our extensive experience in ERISA compliance and ERISA litigation to every consulting situation.

Benefits litigation is complicated by the fact that most trial lawyers are not experts in ERISA matters. Brucker & Morra bridges this gap by providing its vast experience and expertise to trial lawyers in the capacity of technical support, associated co-counsel or expert witness. Brucker & Morra assist trial lawyers in preparing briefs, declarations and court-required reports on a variety of ERISA-fiduciary and benefits-tax issues. Linda Morra and Alex Brucker are highly qualified and experienced expert witnesses.